How to develop receptivity - I

Life comes from Life. The radiation of a man who is enlivened with the God-into-Expression Power can be conveyed to another who is receptive. A man may be far away or he may be near. If he is not receptive he cannot have Life. Life is radiated through Life and also through the eyes. Eyes are the windows of the soul. The soul which is enlivened with the contact of God can radiate that enlivening principle through the eyes, not through the intellect. With the intellect, we can only understand what is what. Life is conveyed through Life and only to those who are receptive. Otherwise, they cannot be enlivened. So spirituality cannot be taught but it can be caught like an infection by those who become receptive. A man may be living in the same house as the Master for years and still might not have a spark of spirituality. A man who is living at a far off distance and who is receptive will derive more benefit than one who is living close by, but is not receptive. The life of one who is receptive will become the abode of all good qualities. That is why Kabir says that it is no use of sitting physically together unless your mind is receptive to the God-in-man.

Receptivity is developed when all foreign thoughts are driven out. You remain and He remains. You are working at the back of the eyes and the God-in-man is also working there. The eyes are the windows of the soul and He teaches others without any language through the eyes. What I am telling you is a very delicate point of course. You may be living for years with the Master and yet not develop Life. As you think so you become. That Life becomes infused in your life if you become receptive. You will become One, no more two. That is why Saint Paul said, "It is I, not now I, but Christ lives in me". This very thing has been given out by almost all Masters, whether they came in India or abroad. Maulana Rumi says, "I am so much filled up with my Master that I have forgotten what is my name, whether He is in me or I am in Him. I cannot differentiate". So this is something which comes to the fate of those who become receptive. He is all wisdom, grace, mercy and love. These qualities can be developed in you by becoming receptive, not by word of mouth. By word of mouth, you will understand at the level of the intellect, but Life cannot be radiated, infused in you, unless you become receptive. You follow my point? This is the reason why even though hundreds of people may live together in the same house as the Master, they don’t develop spirituality.

I quoted you two instances, one from Saint Paul and the other from Maulana Rumi. Such a man is called a Gurmukh. He becomes the mouthpiece of the Guru, but not at the level of the intellect. At the level of the intellect you may remember so many things about what the Master has said and given out. That has no life, you are talking only at the level of the intellect. So life or Consciousness is something else than intellectual wrangling or wrestling. You follow my point now? A very delicate point is brought out here. These things could not be explained in writing. Writings cannot convey the words which come through the mouth charged by higher Life. That is why Soami Ji said, "When you come to a Satsang, derive the full benefit of it". How? Forget everything when you come to the Satsang. Forget even the environments and who is sitting by you. Forget even your own body. You remain and He remains. Eyes speak to eyes. Eyes are the windows of the soul. When you are absorbed in this way, you will become receptive and receive Life. Life cannot be conveyed through paper or the intellect. The intellect only explains what can possibly be explained in words and nothing further. Sometimes language fails to express what is what. We are conscious beings, and we will become more conscious if we get the Bread of Life by becoming receptive. This radiation can be had while sitting quite close or even by sitting thousands of miles away. You can hear and see from thousands of miles by radio and television. If you are Naam personified, the Word made flesh, then why can’t you radiate everywhere? You can. The man who develops receptivity receives the true Bread of Life, and that will give more Life. Life is there already within you but you have not known your own self because you are environed by mind, matter and the outgoing faculties. You are so much identified with the body and outward things that you cannot disentangle yourself from them and know who you truly are. If you come in contact with your higher self, the higher conscious man, you will develop more. Guru Nanak said, "Only he is alive O Nanak, whose soul has become united with, who is the mouthpiece of the God-into-Expression Power, called Word or Naam". If you become receptive to Him who is Word made flesh, naturally you will have more Life.

As I told you, spirituality cannot be taught, but caught, by becoming more receptive. You can only become receptive through love. The man who has love, even while sitting with thousands of people, he still remains all alone, because his whole attention is rivetted on the Master, with whom he is concerned. This is the way how you can develop receptivity. By becoming receptive, you will have more Life. By intellectual talk, you will only understand what is meant by Bread of Life, and nothing more. There is a Sanskrit word called "Upasna". Upasna means to sit by a Master. Nothing stands between you and the Master. He is fully conscious and you too, are a conscious being. Conscious beings should have nothing between them except maybe the physical body, the outgoing faculties or the intellect. We should rise above these things and come in contact with the higher self. This teaching is given by those who are Alive. Those who are not in contact with the higher self cannot get Life. When you get Life, you will become the abode of all virtues. By self introspection, you will weed out all imperfections. You try to have those higher virtues, but even then you fail here and there. If you get Life within you and if in addition, you have self introspection and weed out all imperfections from day to day, you will become more in contact. If you become receptive to a God-man, you need no diary, nothing whatsoever. You will get Life direct and when you get Life all other things will leave you. When you sit by a fire naturally all cold will go. You follow me now, exactly what I mean to say? So this is what is got from the physical presence of the Master.

Those who come to the Master and do not develop receptivity consider that they will have more from their own efforts (of course a little boost will help them), but you can learn more in this way than any other way. Whenever you sit for meditation, what do you do? You have to make some effort, but it should be an effortless effort, in which there is no question of "doer". You should repose all hopes in the One in front of you or to the Power which is also working within you. Books give references but they don’t give what is now explained to you. Kabir says if you are sitting physically near somebody, but your mind is just going round all the world over, that is no Upasna. You cannot derive the full benefit from the presence of the Master. So the Master is not the physical body. He has a physical body to work through but He is Word made flesh. The Master gives you a conscious contact with the God-into-Expression Power, which is the Light and Sound Principle. The more you come in contact with the Light and Sound Principle within the manbody, where it is manifest, the more Life you will have. So Life comes from Life, and you get it when you become receptive.

At the time of Initiation, you are given a contact with the God-into-Expression Power. If you practise it from day to day you can develop it. At the same time, you should have self introspection and weed out all imperfections. The more you come in contact with it, the more love, wisdom and Life you will have. By talking and attending discourses, you begin to understand something, but you don’t get it. To understand is one thing, to have that Being, that Life, is quite another.

As I told you the other day, Satsang is a school in which you have come not only to learn but to have spirituality. First you understand what is what, then through receptivity you have that Life within you. This is a vast subject. As you go in, you understand more and more and more. From thousands of miles you are quite close to Him if you are receptive. That is why Kabir said, "The Master may be living across the seven oceans and the disciple is the other side. If the disciple just directs his attention to the Master, he will have the same benefit as though he were close to Him". For instance, when I get applications for Initiation, I write back and say, "All right, give him a sitting". It is the Word Power that communicates it. Never be deceived that the person who conveys the instructions is the giver. He is only the receptacle through whom the instructions are given. You can have Initiation even from thousands of miles without going through anybody if you become receptive. But generally, people do not understand, that is why some people are authorized to convey the instructions of Initiation. The Initiation is actually done the very moment that it is authorized. That comes from the Word within you or from the human pole where the Word is fully manifested. You understand now, what you learn from Satsang, what you have from Satsang?

First is learning through theory at the intellectual level and then having that Bread of Life. That will give strength to your soul. On spiritual health depends the life of mind and body both. All imperfections will leave you, just as when you sit by a fire, all cold leaves you. By hearing the Sound Current you become the abode of all virtues. By hearing, you can determine the direction in which you have to go. By hearing, your inner eye is opened to see where you are going. Pity it is that we give little time to these things and only waste away our time in trifling things, I would say. When you have understood a thing, then follow it. So long as you have not understood, Satsang will help you. When you have got something, then live up to it, and have only the company of somebody who has got that Life within Him. That will give you a boost.

These things are to be understood and then lived. By speaking about bread, your hunger cannot be appeased but you must have bread to eat. That is why Christ said, "I am the Bread of Life. This Bread of Life has come down from heaven. Whoever partaketh of it shall have everlasting Life". Partaketh of it – He is the Bread of Life of course. He also says, "Eat me and drink me". What to eat? He is Word made flesh. The more you come in contact with and devour that Word, the Light and Sound within you, the more you will be eating of the Bread of Life.